[BITList] Fwd: The UK still needs lots of ships. If only we couldbuild more of them ourselves | Ian Jack | Comment is free |The Guardian

[HUGH]

Mike,

When I read about "union intransigence" being blamed for the lack of 
shipyards in the UK, I resist the urge to put my foot through something.  I 
recall that a tradesman took 5 years to get the bog standard basics, and I 
get a picture of innumerate arseholes behind large desks trying to get to 
grips with shipbuilding via picture books about "Shipbuilding Is Really 
Easy, Anyone Can Do It".  I once sat opposite a management idiot whose way 
forward was to threaten us with being replaced with "people off the 
streets". One reason the much discussed aircraft carriers are so far behind 
schedule and in excess of budget is that what's left of the industry is 
polluted by "people off the streets", at all levels - "I done a 6 week 
training course, guv." "Wow! Great, you're in charge." He who was the office 
idiot when I was last in an office is now in charge.  Every shipyard on the 
Clyde, bar Ferguson's and the BAE lot, was comprehensively demolished, 
obliterated and replaced by housing.  The unions had bugger all to to do 
with that.

Hugh.